Where the Trump administration's lawsuits seeking voter data stand

The Trump administration pursued efforts across almost every U.S. state to obtain complete voter rolls, which contain sensitive personal information about registered voters. The Justice Department's stated rationale was to ensure states were adhering to the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act, laws designed to maintain accurate voter lists.

Last year, the administration requested unredacted electronic copies of statewide voter registration lists. These lists typically include details such as birth dates, addresses, partial Social Security numbers, and driver's license numbers. While many states provided publicly accessible versions of their rolls, they refused to release the complete, unredacted data.

In response to these refusals, the Justice Department initiated lawsuits against 30 states and the District of Columbia, aiming to compel them to release the voter data. However, the administration has faced significant setbacks, losing 20 of these legal challenges. Federal judges have consistently rejected the Justice Department's requests for unredacted voter rolls in states including Arizona, California, Colorado, and New York, among others.

Some cases have seen different outcomes. A lawsuit against Georgia was dismissed for being filed in the wrong court, though it was refiled. Oklahoma agreed to provide its list, leading to the voluntary dismissal of the Justice Department's case there. The remaining pending cases are in states like Delaware, Nevada, and Washington. The Justice Department is appealing many of the decisions that went against it, but an appeals court has already upheld a lower court's rejection of the administration's attempt to obtain Michigan's voter rolls. These efforts are part of broader attempts by the Trump administration to increase federal oversight of elections, including executive orders on voter registration and mail-in voting, and proposed legislation like the SAVE America Act.